This Feminist Dialogue examined narratives of authenticity and belonging around African identity/identities: Who is ‘truly’ an African and who gets to decide who is African? More specifically, to what extent has the compartmentalization of North Africa, the Sahel, and the islands shaped knowledge production of African-ness in the Global North? It was the Sudanese writer, Tayeb Saleh, who coined the term Afro-Arab to challenge the assumption that his African-ness was not incongruous with his linguistic (and/or ethnic) belonging. How have African women writers challenged, through their writings, narratives of authenticity and belonging? How do African feminist voices–and bodies of work by African feminists that examine hegemonic African-ness more broadly?
About Dr. Maha Marouan
Dr. Marouan’s scholarship engages the intersections of race, gender and religion in Africa and the African Diaspora.